


Fire and Ice

by tirsynni



Series: Changing Seasons [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26804527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tirsynni/pseuds/tirsynni
Summary: "Wait for me," Link requested.
Relationships: Link/Revali (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Changing Seasons [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975144
Comments: 8
Kudos: 149





	Fire and Ice

“I don’t remember dying,” Mipha confided. “Still, when my time comes, I will be happy to move onto the next world.”

Tomorrow, Link would face Calamity Ganon and would probably die. Again. Tonight, he visited the Champions one last time. He owed Mipha to visit her first.

He didn’t ask anything. He was frightened that if he did, he would ask the question haunting him since his first visit to Zora’s Domain:  _ Did I love you back? _

Instead, he sat with her in silence and let her speak.

She didn’t share memories that he didn’t remember. She didn’t mention the clothes she made for him. They sat on Vah Ruta and watched the setting sun and it was so like  _that_ memory of them that Link felt the shadow pain in his arm. 

_ I remember _ , Link almost said, but then he would need to admit that he remembered little else.

Her fingers brushed his, cold and dead. Link didn’t hesitate, twining their fingers together.

Tomorrow, one way or another, this would all be over, anyway.

“We will slaughter the darkness,” Mipha continued, voice serene, “and then we will have peace.”

_ I knew peace when I first woke up. I want that peace back. _

When Mipha leaned over and kissed him, she chilled his tongue and hurt his teeth and tasted like stale water. Link closed his eyes and kissed her back and hated himself for not feeling a thing.

xoxoxox

“Tell me more,” Daruk begged.

Link smiled and told him about meeting Yunobo. Not even the heat of Death Mountain could chase the chill from his blood, but he could force a smile and he could pretend. Give Daruk some final joy before the end.

Thankfully, Daruk said nothing of their past or his own death. He asked about Yunobo and didn’t seem to mind at all when Link had little to offer. 

“I’ve seen the little guy,” Daruk said wistfully. “Ah, he’ll be so great one day!”

Link nodded and didn’t bother pointing out that neither of them would probably see it. It was time for the past to let them go. Let the new Champions rise.

“Tell me again about the cannons!”

xoxoxox

“After this is done, it’ll be up to you to protect the princess.”

_ I was happier before I remembered her _ .

Fortunately for Link, Urbosa was dead, not psychic. Oblivious, Urbosa continued on, staring toward the castle.

“After we’re gone, you will be all she has left. You are the last of the Knights of Hyrule and the last of the Champions.”

_ There is Teba and Riju and Sidon and Yunobo. They’re all stronger than me. _

“It will be up to you to help Princess Zelda bring Hyrule back to its former glory.”

_ When I first looked over the land, I couldn’t remember anything about Hyrule’s old glory. I just thought everything looked beautiful. _

“I’m trusting in you, Link.”

_ I wish you wouldn’t. _

xoxoxox

“It’s getting late, you idiot. If you really  _ are _ going to challenge the Calamity tomorrow, you should go to sleep.”

Link’s memories of Revali were as few as his memories of everyone else. He  _ thought _ he remembered that aspect of his personality, though: somehow being insulting and caring in the same breath.

They sat on the rock close to Vah Medoh’s feet. Up here, the only light shone from Vah Medoh and its blazing, deadly red light. It was also so cold that it made Revali’s deathly chill feel warm.

Feeling brave, Link leaned against Revali. When Revali wrapped his cold, stiff wing around Link, he felt warm for the first time all night.

“If you don’t use my bow, I will haunt you personally.” Revali nodded so hard his beak clacked, loud beside Link’s ear. Link didn’t mind. “You’ll wake up in the middle of the night and I’ll be right there, beside your bed, yelling at you about proper bow care and the fine art of archery.”

All night with the different Champions, Link avoided certain topics: his old life with them, his old relationships with them, his painful memories, everything after tonight. Yet now, he looked at Revali’s face, glowing and dead and determined to haunt Link  _ anyway _ if he didn’t use his bow, and he needed to ask, “Would you wait for me?”

Revali paused in the middle of taking a deep, unnecessary breath, presumably for the next part of his rant. The small kernel of warmth grew and Link felt hopelessly, helplessly adoring of him. Had he felt that way before? Did that Link look at Revali and feel this much?

Blinking ( _ you don’t need to do that anymore, Revali _ ), Revali turned to him. “Wait? What do you mean?” He scoffed and Link felt his feathers ruffle, like jagged pieces of ice pressing against his clothes. “I waited for you for one hundred years and you want me to wait longer? Whatever for?”

For the first time in hours, Link’s smile felt genuine. Waited for  _ him _ . He knew it was just to free Vah Medoh, but the thought fanned that little flame, nonetheless. “Wait for me,” Link said quietly, “if I don’t survive the battle. Wait for me instead of moving straight on.”

Revali froze and Link stared at Hyrule Castle in the far distance, lit by Malice and the four Divine Beasts. If he had his reasons for speaking with Mipha first,  _ this _ was the reason he spoke with Revali last. Link bit his lip and thought he could still taste Mipha.

He didn’t know what he felt for Mipha then or what he felt for Revali then, but in this time, Revali teased him and taunted him and  _ gave him wings _ . He made Link smile after the memories started coming back and his smiles started fading.

Link wanted to taste Revali.

“Don’t say such foolishness,” Revali said irritably, and it cheered Link that he could hear the worry under the acid. “We’ll attack and you and Princess Zelda will finish the Calamity and…” For a breath, Revali’s face twisted with disgust. “And then you two can have whatever fairytale ending you desire.”

Link was shaking his head before Revali finished his sentence. He pressed himself a little harder into Revali’s side and that flame burned inside him when Revali tightened his grip. 

When he first awoke on the Plateau, he couldn’t remember anything. Even his name didn’t sound like his own. He remembered leaving the Shrine of Resurrection and seeing the world below the Plateau and being filled with awe. When the King revealed his identity and Link’s quest, he wasn’t frightened. He didn’t have the memory of dying or anything of Zelda. She was a stranger he needed to help.

With each memory, though, that wild, hopeful awe died. He remembered the stakes. He remembered failing. He remembered struggling with his responsibilities and Zelda’s resentment and old feelings of grief and pain without remembering what spawned them. He remembered being caged by his Knighthood and how  _ free _ he felt with the Knighthood one hundred years dead.

His last regained memory was dying in Zelda’s arms: the oddest of freedoms.

“I don’t want that with Zelda,” Link said softly. With the brave, strong princess who hated him for so long. She stopped in the end and spoke so nicely to him now but he was still afraid. Not of that hatred returning but of Zelda so carelessly putting the chains back on him. For months he traveled wild and free through Hyrule, helping the Champions and Hyrule, and he had been  _ happy _ . He had wings. He could  _ fly _ .

How ironic that the Calamity’s defeat could stop that.

“I want to be here with you.”

When Revali turned his head enough to nuzzle Link’s temple with his beak, damn the Calamity: Link thought his heart stopped then. “I’m dead, you idiot.” His words were harsh but his voice was gentle. “Look. You’re bound to do something fool-hearted and reckless saving someone who is absolutely undeserving and get yourself killed before you even start growing grey. There is no reason for you to rush it.” Revali sighed and he was so close Link  _ should _ have felt a breath but didn’t. “I’ll wait. If… Well. I can’t blame you for it being so important to you, so no fear! I will wait!” Revali scoffed. Another time when Link waited for a breath and felt nothing. “Fortunately for you, I am already dead, so I can wait for decades. I’ve  _ already _ waited a century.”

Mipha had kissed him. Link wished Revali could do the same.

“Tomorrow, we’re going to kill the Calamity,” Revali continued intently. “Then you’re going to live on and have many adventures so that when we meet again, you’ll have plenty of sources to tell me.”

Link  _ had  _ his adventures. Now he wanted more. “And you?”

Revali used his free wing to pat the rock beside him. “I’ll be here. Waiting. And when you’re ready, I’ll teach you how to fly.”

_ You know. You knew. We rose through the air and you lent me your wings. _

_ Don’t take them away from me again. _

“Just… Don’t rush it, you featherless twit.” Revali nuzzled his temple again. “We’ll have time to do all the things I thought about when I first saw you.”

One of the forbidden topics. That lost time. 

Revali turned and looked away from him, toward the castle. Toward Link’s destiny. “You… I thought you were an arrogant little upstart of a Hylian.” Another scoff. In the distance, the moon trailed across the sky. Time passing, sliding through Link’s fingers like desert sand. “But. You were pretty enough, I suppose. For a Hylian. And competent enough. And eventually…” Revali smiled. “Well, you were completely atrocious with your bow but at least you knew it and let me teach you better. And once you were away from your princess…”

_ I don’t want to go back to her. I want to stay with you. _

“I’ll be waiting,” Revali repeated. “Here. For you. So don’t do anything more stupid than usual, all right?”

He sounded so  _ anxious _ that Link wanted to promise that of course he wouldn’t. Instead, Link shifted his head so he could kiss Revali’s beak.

He tasted like snow.

xoxoxox

“Do you really remember me?”

Link stared at Zelda with her hopeful smile and bright eyes and felt that old, protective numbness from his memories slide over him like a second skin. 

_ I remember enough to wish I died in that battle. _

He felt it the moment the Champions faded away. When Revali faded.

_ You promised you would wait for me. _

_ My wings are gone. _

Link said nothing. Zelda’s smile faded. He thought he should feel bad but…

_ I barely remember you, but I’m not like Mipha. I remember dying. _

Revali was gone. Revali’s strange warmth was gone. Only scattered memories and ice remained. 

Zelda forced a smile and clapped her hands. “Well, we better get moving! We have a lot of work to do!”

_ And I’m ready to move on. To fly again. _

When Link said nothing, Zelda didn’t seem surprised at all.

**Author's Note:**

> More Zelda, Revalink, and general fandom on my [tumblr](https://tirsynni.tumblr.com/). :D


End file.
